January 27: Want to become well?

Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool called Bethzatha in Aramaic, which has five covered walkways. A great number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying in these walkways. Now a man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and when he realized that the man had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, “Do you want to become well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water, someone else goes down there before me.” Jesus said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and started walking. (Now that day was a Sabbath.) …After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, lest anything worse happen to you.” (John 5:2-9,14 — NET)

Jesus found this large group of sick people waiting at a pool; they thought there was healing power in the water when it was stirred and that the first one into the pool would be healed. Whether that was true or not we don't know, but Jesus came to one man who had been there a long time and asked him if he wanted to get well. Some people react in a passive way to illness, view it as fate, or look for sympathy, when illness is actually something to fight against. If you are sick, you have to want to get well; you have to reach out for your healing in faith.

Jesus told the man to get up, pick up his mat, and walk—and he did! A man who had been an invalid for 38 years was healed. This teaches us that it doesn't matter how long you, or your relative, has been sick. Jesus is a healer and our faith has the power to make healing a reality. If sin, unforgiveness, or bitterness has played a part in your sickness, get rid of it so that the door to God’s healing will be open. 

Do you want to get well? Do you want a better job? Is there a particular thing that you want in life? If so, grab a hold of it by faith! He said, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."